Writing Earth, Writing Self: A Book Launch for SEABEAST

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ABOUT SEABEAST- by Rajiv Mohabir

Organized as an alphabetical bestiary, Seabeast lyrically catalogues whale species by common name and behaviors, resulting in a poetic compendium that defies pathetic fallacy even as it sings the similarities between homo sapiens and the marine mammoths that have long captured our fascination.

In his fifth full-length collection, Rajiv Mohabir winds together the threads of cetacean evolution, natural history, animal migration, and human culture and colonization as they concern the endurance of all species. In anthropomorphizing these complex mammals, Mohabir argues, we overwrite and erase their sublime difference and selfhood, their distinct and separate experience of embodiment; yet, in refusing to recognize the familiarities of whale behavior and social patterns, we subjugate these magnificent creatures, affirming a hierarchy that establishes anything inhuman as inherently less than human and enabling cruelty toward all manner of living things.

Mohabir's language ingeniously plumbs the depths, illustrating how the objectification fundamental to the construction and preservation of animal taxonomy mirrors the internecine violence of humankind on both a broad and intimate scale.

"We were misnamed / again and again: first Hindu, / then Hindoo, then Indian, then / Coolie, all subhuman / much like this precursory cetacean / of the Eocene, named / in Latin great lizard— / anguilliform, what to make / of twist and tear, teeth / gnashing sharks and durodons / into pulp, judged by fossilized / gouges in enamel and finger / holes on skulls?"

Through the invention of race, the conquest and consumption of land, and the cultural amnesia enforced on the subaltern, imperialism threatens human survival on this planet just as we have misunderstood, taken captive, and hunted whales nearly to extinction. Meditating on the results of genetic testing, Mohabir details how, like his white ex-spouse's "ancestors / from northern Germany / played bone flutes / for their dead at gravesites," a lab "one day exhumed" them all "in perfect pentatonic scales." Meanwhile, he wonders what of his Indo-Caribbean heritage, complicated by the obfuscating forces of indenture, ethnic oppression, and frequent relocation, "can be revived" from this "wastebasket taxon, / us unnamed hoard of no future?" Of the Irrawaddy Dolphin once "known for / herding shoals of fish / for fisherfolk / in whose nets / they now drown," Mohabir observes that "learning human / language opens you // to betrayal." "Trust me," he urges, "though I am no // hairless dolphin— / I once had a husband."

Standing at the confluence of these prehistoric, mythological, and contemporary tributaries feeding our attitude toward whales, Mohabir asks, who is the seabeast, really? The namer or the named? The answer prompts us to see that, if we recognize the legacy of human barbarism in the whale's long history with us, we can also locate a new reserve of resilience and survival. It is their example Mohabir uses, not the "bright honey" of their blubber that once would "fuel lanterns," to power his own spiritual refortification. "Maybe I will, from filling my lungs, blood / rushing to my core, / into a finned thing, / transform."The number of community banks in the US has been steadily declining for decades, giving way to big banks that have little connection to the communities they claim to serve. The massive, unprecedented shift toward such a highly concentrated banking sector has weakened our ability to take action at a community level and leaves many people, especially those who have been historically marginalized, without access to capital.

ABOUT GHOSTWORD- by Crisosto Apache

Most journeys begin without knowledge of ever beginning. “Ghostword” is inspired by Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s, A Fool’s Life (1987, Eridanos Press), written on June 20, 1927.

Akutagawa’s writing influenced the Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa who developed two films based on Ryunosuke’s stories, The Grove (1950) and Rashomon (1950). Akutagawa’s, A Fool’s Life, is a collection of fifty-one short “poetic vignettes” after which the composition “Ghostword” is inspired and mimics slightly, but in three parts.

This collection is heartbreaking and fiercely introspective, while challenging the reader to confront their own beliefs.

ABOUT THE JAMAICA KOLLECTION OF THE SHANTE DREAM ARKIVE- by Marcia Douglas

Marcia Douglas's dreamlike mosaic weaves together ecological prayers, healing wisdom, and buried herstories from the Caribbean and the U.S. Recalling Zora Neale Hurston's time with the maroons in the village of Accompong, the book traces a young woman's flight from New Jersey to the Grand Canyon to escape U.S. immigration officers and follows multiple other lives: an Ashante woman in the hull of a middle-passage ship, a mother searching across centuries for her missing child, and a wailing youth wandering through dreamscapes, seeking liberation and the lost parts of himself. The whole weave is juxtaposed against botanical, animal, and planetary migrations and the riddim and chant of the cosmos.

Carrying on Douglas's "speculative ancestral project" (Whiting Foundation), The Jamaica Kollection of the Shante Dream Arkive further explores themes of loss, survival, and deliverance. Through an immersive storytelling, richly layered with drawings and footnotes of flora, fauna, and natural phenomena, Douglas preserves and reimagines "the movement of Jah people" and the cultural memory of the African diaspora.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

MAIN AUTHOR:

Rajiv Mohabir Poet, memoirist, and translator, Rajiv Mohabir is the author of five books of poetry and has been awarded two gold medals from the Foreword INDIES and Eric Hoffer Medal Provocateur. His other honors include being a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/America Open Book Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction, and both second place and finalist for the Guyana Prize for Literature. His translations have won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets. Currently he teaches poetry at the University of Colorado Boulder.

SUPPORTING POETS:

Crisosto Apache is originally from Mescalero, New Mexico, on the Mescalero Apache Reservation. He is Mescalero Apache, Chiricahua Apache, and Diné (Navajo) of ‘Áshįįhí (Salt Clan) born for Kinyaa’áanii (Towering House Clan). Apache earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Apache’s debut poetry collection is GENESIS (Lost Alphabet). Apache’s second poetry collection is Ghostword (Gnashing Teeth Publishing), winner of the Publishing Triangle’s 2023 Betty Berzon Emerging Writers Award and a poetry Finalist for the 2023 Colorado Authors League Award. Apache’s third poetry collection “is(ness)” forthcoming from Gnashing Teeth Publishing in 2025. Apache is also an Editor-at-large for Offing Magazine. He continues his advocacy work for the Native American LGBTQ / ‘two spirit’ identity.

Marcia Douglas was born in the UK, and grew up in Kingston, Jamaica. The author of novels, poems, and essays, she is the recipient of awards and fellowships from Creative Capital, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Whiting Foundation, and a UK Poetry Book Society Recommendation. The Marvellous Equations of the Dread was longlisted for the 2016 Republic of Consciousness Prize and the 2017 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. She is a College Professor of Distinction at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

AGENDA

6:30PM Welcome to MATTER

6:45PM Introduction

7:00PM Crisosto Reads

7:10PM Marcia Reads

7:20PM Rajiv Reads

7:35PM Conversation and questions

7:55PM Reception and book signing

8:30PM End

ACCESIBILITY

Parking: Metered street parking is available (parallel parking) on Market St. Paid lots are available within a few blocks. The closest one is on 21st and Market St.

Entrance Access: Our front door is at street level and manually operated, accessible for wheelchairs and mobility aids. The rest of the block has sidewalks raised by five steps; however, the bike lane offers a step-free route down the block with minimal car traffic.

Restrooms: All-gender restrooms. Just like at home.

Communication: Staff on site speak English. We welcome communication via translation apps (Google Translate is available). While we do not use ASL, we’re happy to communicate through apps or other tools that work for you.

Alcohol Policy: No alcohol will be served or permitted at this event.

Masks: Masks are encouraged and supplied.

Questions or Requests: Please contact us at ZXZlbnRzIHwgbW9yZW1hdHRlciAhIGNvbQ== with any accessibility needs or questions.

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